From Hunger To Hope

EHP's Miss﻿ion:

EHP’s mission is to provide compassionate, dignified and practical assistance to families and individuals experiencing economic and personal hardship. We offer material help, support services, and advocacy for our neighbors in need, in a challenging and rapidly changing environment.

EHP serves working families, seniors, people with limited incomes and those who have both emergency and on-going needs in East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and surrounding communities.

EHP's Pledge:

The Ecumenical Hunger Program (EHP) is a special kind of community, a neighborhood of committed individuals and groups. In our neighborhood, people care for one another. We look after each other's welfare. We uplift those who are down. We express confidence in those who are disheartened. We support one another in a host of tangible and intangible ways. We believe in each other and encourage in those around us the self-respect needed to live in dignity. Through the relationships that our neighborhood provides, we can achieve the degree of self-sufficiency and self-worth that we all need to live useful and meaningful lives.

EHP's Values:As a community, EHP works to meet the needs of its neighbors, both material and intangible. Our goal is to be more than just a social service agency that connects people to resources. We strive to build relationships that allow us to encourage, support and nourish individuals and families through difficult times. We fully understand the importance of providing life's essentials, but aspire to a wider focus: the creation of a moral community of support that can provide hope to replace despair.​

History:EHP has been in the safety net business since it was founded in 1975 by Miriam Nixon Hope and a group from Church Women United who channeled surplus and donated food to neighborhood pantries where it was then distributed to families in need. EHP was incorporated in 1978 as a non-profit organization. Under the direction of Nevida Butler, EHP began providing direct services to families in need in 1981 and it has grown to become the largest direct emergency food provider in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. EHP also began addressing other critical needs in the community, distributing clothing, furniture, and household essentials, and providing case management, referrals and other support to those in need in our service area. However, EHP’s program focus has always been on essential resources for survival, primarily food. Throughout the past four decades, EHP has remained a community based organization meaning that it has grown and adjusted based upon community needs and trends and has only survived with community support without government funding. Although a well established organization, EHP has held onto its “grass roots” mentality by continuing to provide personal and customized safety net services to each individual and family.

EHP staff, board and volunteers have remained alert and aware of all issues facing local families and for over thirty years, they have strived to remain educated and knowledgeable in order to provide innovative solutions to the age old problems of hunger and poverty.

EHP has consistently worked with local community organizations learning from them, providing assistance to and receiving assistance from them in order to provide the highest quality of services available to our families. Since its inception, EHP has retained the reputation of being a sustainable organization that operates with integrity, honesty, flexibility and accountability.